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January 7, 2019

Share a recipe for a food that comes from one of your books.

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Eating is a fundamental human activity, an activity that is both necessary for survival and inextricably connected with social function. Eating habits and rituals, the choice of dining companions, and the reasons behind these behaviors are fundamental to fostering an understanding of human society.

As such, the characters in my books eat on a regular basis – except the characters of Transformation Project will being going hungry in some future books because that’s what happens in the apocalypse. While they still have resources, however, I do focus on what they eat because eating is a fundamental human activity and food so defines American culture in the 21st century. It will provide a nice juxtaposition to their hunger in later books.

In Day’s End – Book 4 of Transformation Project (published in November 2018), the Delaney clan gathers for breakfast and to discuss what to do about a horde of people headed their way, running from winter without electricity. Although the conversation is deadly serious and heart-breaking for the participants, Jill Delaney makes the quintessential family dish of French toast and so, that is my recipe for this post.

Emmaus French Toast

Bread (preferably whole wheat, but also homemade white or sourdough. It needs to be kind of tough)

Eggs – 1 egg for every three slices of bread.

Milk or half-and-half, about a half-cup per egg.

Sugar – teaspoon per egg.

Vanilla extract – half-teaspoon per 4 eggs

Cinnamon – (optional, to taste)

Warm a griddle to medium hot, coat with shortening or vegetable oil (butter will burn).

Whip the batter into a loose slurry in a wide and shallow bowl.

Soak bread in batter on one side until fairly heavy. (I prefer French toast batter-soaked rather than just coated, but you can adjust to your personal preference) You want the batter to soak into the bread. Flip. Allow to drain somewhat as you pulled it from the batter.

Place on griddle. Allow to cook until you can see the egg mixture on the bottom start to dry. Flip. Remove when the egg mixture on the bottom is starting to dry.

Dress with butter, syrup or whip cream.

As the Emmaus community is running out of resources even as they are eating breakfast, they didn’t have this option, but you can also adorn with fruit or a side of bacon or sausage.

Food is such an integral part of the human experience and what is on the table of my characters can set a mood and say so much about the world they live in. For example, as “French toast” is eaten in France to make use of bread that’s getting stale, you might infer that Jill Delaney might be facing a bread shortage in the near future or that she had a lot of refrigerated eggs to get rid of now that she has no electricity and must rely on her son-in-law’s farm-fresh (unrefrigerated) eggs going forward. There’s reference in an earlier book to not pasturizing the family eggs, only the ones for sale. In building the community culture of Emmaus I tried to think ahead for future books and drop hints that could mean everything in later books.

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Day’s End (Book 4 of Transformation Project) is on Pre-Order for $2 off until November 20 launch.

The rest of the series is $1 off until launch.

Darkness Falls. 

They fought the USDA, but winning the battle didn’t assure their survival. The fundamental transformation of America is still underway and the next blow may be worse than the first. When the power grid goes down and stays down, people begin fleeing the cities in search of food and heat, forcing Emmaus, Kansas to re-evaluate what is important to them and what they owe strangers on the road going by the town.

While some distant community members undertake perilous journeys home through a human landscape that is rapidly becoming unrecognizable, others face life-altering decisions right where they are.

Darkness is falling and a new day will dawn, seared in blood and fire.

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Book 4 of Transformation Project, Day’s End, is available for pre-order, to be launched in mid-November. If you buy it on Pre-order before November 10, you’ll get it $2 off. And watch for free days of Life As We Knew It and sales of Objects in View and A Threatening Fragility during this pre-launch month.

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Day’s End is back from the editor and under final rewrite. I’ve a few things to tweak before I can start formatting, so it may be November before it’s published. In the meantime, Life As We Know It (first book in Transformation Project series) will be free tomorrow in celebration of moving into the final phase of book construction. I’ll also discount Objects in View and A Threatening Fragility for those who would like to read up before the new book comes out.

Watch for a preorder sale of Day’s End in coming weeks.

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Watch for Book 4 of Transformation Project “Day’s End” on Amazon in the near-future.

Meanwhile, catch up with the series.

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Although I already announced this on Facebook, it seems I didn’t post it here.

Book 4 of Transformation Project has had the working title of “Thanatosis”, but when it came down to doing the cover, I decided to change the name to “Day’s End”.

The big cover reveal is Sunday.

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Book 4 of Transformation Project is in the last days of rewrite before heading to betas and editing. And, the cover is ready.

 

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My blog has been HOT lately, so I thought I’d celebrate by offering a goody – who wants a free book?  Friday is FREE Day and I’ve reduced the others in the series to 99 cents.

Life As We Knew It (Transformation Project Book 1) – FREE

Objects In View (Transformation Project Book 2) – 99 cents

A Threatening Fragility (Transformation Project Book 3) – 99 cents